(HCS) - It appears that rezoning will not take effect for the 2017-2018 school year, Hoover school officials announced at the April meeting of the Hoover Board of Education.

According to Superintendent Dr. Kathy Murphy, there is not enough time at this point to thoughtfully and respectfully implement a rezoning plan for the fall. The Court has not yet given final approval to the rezoning proposal that was preliminarily approved by the Court in May of 2016.

“As you all know, we have submitted a request to the Court and it remains pending. To stay focused on what is in the best interest of our students and our families, we felt like it was important to talk to the community about what the next school year holds in terms of the rezoning plan,” Dr. Murphy said. “It appears we will just not have the time to thoughtfully and reflectively take all of the steps we need to take to implement rezoning for this coming August.”

Dr. Murphy stated that when the Court does address Hoover City Schools’ request for rezoning, she planned to ask the Court to grant the request instead for the following school year - that is the 2018-19 school year - so that families, employees and the school community will have plenty of time to adjust and prepare.“We believe we have addressed in a timely and thorough manner the questions presented to us by the other parties (United States Department of Justice, the NAACP Legal and Educational Defense Fund). These parties, along with our counsel, have approached this work in a positive and collaborative manner. This process has not only helped the other parties to understand more about our district, it has helped us to reflect more deeply on our own hopes, dreams and goals for the children we serve. The work of rezoning and path toward unitary status can be complicated and challenging but our vision is clear - if we continue to focus on giving every individual child the educational opportunities they deserve and if we are willing to work tirelessly to that end, the promise of a unitary system will be absolutely fulfilled. And we will get there not because we have to, but because we want to - for our children,” Dr. Murphy said.Hoover school officials remain committed to rezoning in 2018-2019 to solve capacity issues at schools and work toward unitary status. The district continues to contemplate and address measures related to all Green factors and most importantly, remains focused on providing the very best education possible to the children this community has entrusted to us.